Melbourne

Coates quick to make Melbourne home

The gifted 21-year-old may have made his NRL debut with the Broncos and can already add State of Origin to his resume, but it’s with Melbourne that Coates says he has found home.  

“Since the moment I landed in Melbourne I've loved my time so far.” 

“I think pre-season is supposed to be the most gruelling part of the season, but it’s probably the most enjoyable part of my rugby league career so far. 

I'm loving my time so far and everyone made me feel so welcome. So, to extend the contract, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else to be honest.

Everyday People PNG : Olivia Ephraim

She commenced her Master of Public Health at the University of Melbourne in 2020, specialising in gender, health and society.

Ephraim is passionate about addressing and preventing gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea. Having worked with the Family Support Centre at the Port Moresby General Hospital since 2015, she has seen many cases of gender-based violence.

She believes Papua New Guinea is suffering from a public health crisis and is dedicated to finding solutions.

Melbourne's Park Hotel a Covid incubator, says refugee advocate

The refugees came from the Australian offshore detention camps in Manus (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru, and were brought to the mainland for medical treatment.

They are being held at the Park Hotel in Carlton, where 22 of them now have Covid-19, with one hospitalised.

The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul claimed the proper protocols of separating the infected from those without the virus had been ignored by Australian officials.

He said the Australian government has created a Covid incubator in the Park Hotel.

Serena returns to tennis

The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who is warming up for the Australian Open, was at her dominant best after a slow start in which she saved four break points in the opening game of the contest at Margaret Court Arena.

Former world number one Williams has not played since withdrawing from last year's French Open second round in September with an Achilles injury, but made quick work of Gavrilova, striking 27 winners including 16 in the opening set.

Players unable to practice before season-opening grand slam

Two dozen players who arrived from Los Angeles entered strict hotel quarantine after an aircrew member and Australian Open participant who is not a player tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Later, another non-player passenger on a flight from Abu Dhabi tested positive, prompting the organisers to usher 23 players into hotel quarantine.

All three who tested positive had been transferred to a health hotel, the organisers said in a statement.

The players would not be able to leave their hotel rooms for 14 days and until they are medically cleared, they said.

Melbourne locks down tower blocks as cases rise

The 3,000 or so residents of the blocks are being told not to leave their homes for any reason for at least five days.

At least 23 cases of infection were found on two estates in recent days.

The state of Victoria recorded 108 new cases on Saturday, its second-biggest daily increase. Australia as a whole has seen 104 coronavirus deaths.

There have been at least 8,362 infections nationwide.

Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews said the latest figures there were a very real concern to everybody.

Melbourne pub ordered to tear down Harry Potter installation after legal threat

 The Imperial Hotel in Melbourne has been ordered tear down its rooftop Harry Potter installation and turn off the taps on its Buttah Beer after the multinational demanded the pub remove all wizard-themed decorations and references.

The pub – on the corner of Bourke and Spring streets, a few doors down from the Princess Theatre where the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play runs eight times a week – featured six "magical stores" adorned with spell books, almanacs and colours from the film series.

Reptile surprises Melbourne walkers

Two people came across the one-metre-long reptile while walking in Heidelberg Heights about 8:30pm local time on Monday night.

It was "sitting quietly" on a footpath in the front yard of a business on Waiora Road, police said.

Officers were called to the scene, but decided to hand the case over to the experts and a reptile catcher came to help.

The catcher will look after the crocodile until staff from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning can collect it, police said.

Broken fat switch

Scientists at Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute believe they have found a mechanism in the brain that coordinates the conversion of food into white fat or brown fat in the body.

The study was conducted on mice, but evidence suggests it would likely apply to humans as well.

White fat is how humans store energy, and excess storage leads to obesity, while brown fat actually produces heat and burns energy.

Dance me to the end of adulthood

From leg irons to tap dancing

David Watson, 83, took up tap dancing in his 40s, and has danced ever since.

He took up it up by chance, after accompanying a friend from work to a dance class in Melbourne.

The ex-architecture lecturer recalled the very first lesson on a "lousy" floor located above a porn shop in Swanston Street.

"I used to have to hide my face as I walked in," Mr Watson laughed.